It Ain't Half Hot Mum

The series follows the exploits of a Royal Artillery Concert Party during the Second World War. Created by David Croft and Jimmy Perry, it seemed a natural follow-up to their smash hit Dad's Army. Another ensemble piece, it drew on both writers' wartime experience in India and set the action in Deolali: a British army camp 100 miles north-east of Bombay where everyone's gone "a bit doolally". The concert party is a rag-tag collection of soldiers who'd rather sing, dance and drag up to entertain the troops than be sent forward to the front line. Characters include effeminate drag artist Gunner 'Gloria' Beaumont (Melvyn Hayes); the diminutive Gunner 'Lofty' Willie Sugden (Don Estelle) who possesses a hauntingly beautiful singing voice and ineffectual Colonel Reynolds (Donald Hewlett). However, the show's stand-out personality is the bombastic, eye-rolling Battery Sergeant Major Williams (Windsor Davies). (BBC)